full boat

n. a full price or total amount of money; generally, all of something; as an adj., having many or elaborate features, options, or functions. Subjects: English, Food & Drink

Editorial Note: Often constructed as to pay full boat or with the definite article: the full boat. In yoga and exercise there is a pose also called the full boat, which is probably unrelated. Etymological Note: Perhaps influenced by a full boat ‘full house’ in poker, representing three of one kind and two of another.

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Citations: 1985 Ken Castle San Francisco Chronicle (California) (Oct. 14) “Ski Wars: The Prices is Right to Buy Equipment” p. 75: Even the Bay Area’s most upscale ski specialist, Any Mountain, has been forced to lower prices on items it would have sold at full boat during previous years. 1995 Jerry Eichenberger Business & Commercial Aviation (Nov. 1) “Flying for Fun” vol. 77, no. 5, p. 90: Paying the full-boat premium for coverage while excercising ATP privileges is still a bargain. 1997 William Diehl Reign in Hell (Sept. 23) p. 430: You’ll do five to ten which means if you’re a good boy, you should be out in three to four years. And then we’ll put you in witness protection. Think about it. Which is it? The full boat? Or a chance to resume your life less than five years form now? 1997 Jon Kosmoski How to: Custom Paint & Graphics (Oct. 1) p. 15: A scanner makes it easy to take a sketch or photo and use that as the basis for a design. Like everything else these come in everything from the four-cylinder econo-box model to the full-boat Cadillac version with air conditioning and 10-speaker stereo. 2001 Jim Sterne World Wide Web Marketing (June 4) p. 260: The Affiliate Program on Steroids. HP created a full-boat, e-commerce site filled with all their products and handed it to its resellers. 2002 Darwin Holmstrom Harley-Davidson Century (Sept. 1) p. 370: Another was a full-boat tourer with the FLT fairing. 2003 Stephen J. Cannell Runaway Heart (July 11) p. 22: He picked one, wondering at the stupidity of having full-boat security and leaving such easy access through system defects. 2005 Melanie Asmar Concord Monitor (N.H.) (May 8) “Hospitals challenged over billing”: These hospitals call themselves non-profit, but here they are charging people who can least afford it the full boat,” Grant said. “That doesn’t sound very charitable to me.”

Posted 9 May 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend